The temporary diversion with Mutou means I avoided most of the crush of students the other classes getting out. There are a few stragglers making their way towards the staircase from the classrooms further down the hallway, so I fall in step along with them. I'm nearly to the upper landing when I recognize two students by the elevator and change course.
“Hey, you two.”
Chisato and Saki turn at the sound of my voice, both of them offering smiles and greetings.
“You look better,” I mention to Saki. She's awake and alert again, filled with the energy that seemed to elude her for most of last night. “Get a good night's sleep?”
“I was out before my head even hit the pillow,” she says to me.
“Oh lucky you,” Chisato says, rolling her eyes. “I was up half the night taking down that stall.”
“You were not,” Saki chides. “Besides, it serves you right for not helping to set it up.”
The elevator doors chime and open, disgorging a small handful of students. Saki and Chisato step in after the way is clear, Chisato raising her eyebrow towards me as if to beckon me inside. I do feel a little guilty using the elevator when I'm perfectly capable of walking, but not enough to prevent me from doing so.
“Doing anything for lunch?” Saki asks as the elevator starts to move.
“I was, but that fell through. Why do you ask?”
“We were on the way to the cafeteria,” Chisato answers, leaning back against the wall and lightly yawning. “You're welcome to come with.”
I don't see any reason to object, and am about to tell the two of them when the elevator comes to a halt. The big red display above the doors shows we're at the second floor, so all three of us move towards the back of the elevator and press our backs to the wall to make room.
With another chime, the door opens and I see two people waiting. One is a petite girl with long dark hair seated in a wheelchair, her bookbag resting across her lap. She smiles at us and wheels herself in. The student that follows her however, is someone I recognize from my own class, though I can't remember his name.
He scans our group, the general look of boredom and disinterest changing to a scowl of disapproval for a fraction of a second when his eyes rest on Saki.
“Hey, Maeda,” Chisato says, causing my brain to click.
Maeda, that was it. Takeshi? Takashi? I can't remember his first name. He sits on the other side of Shizune. I don't think I've ever seen him take his green uniform jacket off, even though we're not required to wear it in class. He never buttons it up, revealing he doesn't wear a tie but instead opts to wear a dark blue vest. The brown beret he wears on his mop of light brown hair leans towards the right side, nearly resting on the bandage covering his ear.
“Hey,” he answers noncommittally, before closing his eyes and moving to join us. He turns to face the elevator doors as they close, effectively cutting us off with his body language.
I take a quick glance at the girls. Chisato’s taken an interest in the nails of her right hand. She buffs them against the fabric of her shirt, then holds them up for inspection.
Saki, for her part, seems to be staring intently at a spot on the floor.
I have no idea what just happened. I'm not sure if the sudden sinking feeling comes from the oppressive mood or if it's from our descent continuing down to the first floor as the elevator lurches again.
Maeda's out the door before it fully opens, clearly wanting to be anywhere else. By the time our other passenger manages to roll herself over the threshold and we can step out ourselves, he's gone.
Even though we're out of the elevator, neither Saki nor Chisato seem to feel like striking up any conversation, and I just tag along feeling awkward. I'm actually relieved when we step into the cafeteria and manage to order our food.
“So,” I say, taking a seat on a blue plastic chair. “Does someone want to tell me what that was all about?”
“Not much to tell, really,” Saki answers, her tone indicating that there's plenty to tell but not she's not wanting to get into it right now. She bites into an apple to emphasize the point.
“I've seen him in class before, but I've never really spoken to him. He sure seemed to have a problem with you though.”
“Yeah,” Chisato chimes in, hoisting her bag up to the seat beside her and withdrawing what looks to be a small leather case. “Ex-boyfriends tend to do that.”
Saki closes her eyes and groans. “Chisato...”
“What?” her friend answers. “It’s not like it was a secret.”
While Saki pinches the bridge of her nose, Chisato places the parcel on the table and opens the flap, revealing an array of instruments. As with the music at the festival yesterday, there's something vaguely familiar about them, even though I can’t remember ever seeing them before. There's something that looks like an electric thermometer, and something else that, I don't know, looks like one of those tamagotchi toys I had when I was younger.
Chisato removes and tears open a small package. I'm not sure what's in the plastic, but I spent long enough in the hospital to know the sound of something sterile being opened. Once you hear it so many times, you instantly recognize it.
More interesting to me than that though, is what the two of them just said.
“Excuse me?” I say, a bit taken aback. “That guy's your ex?”
Saki shoots me a dark scowl before taking another bite of her apple, this one a bit more...vicious.
I'm not sure why I suddenly feel a bit uneasy. Maybe it's the idea of Saki herself having an ex, but it could also be my whole unfamiliarity with the subject.
I'd had a few crushes...I mean, what boy going through puberty doesn't? It's not that I was uninterested in girls or dating. It was just never a priority on my radar. But I never really even entertained the idea of a relationship until that day I got that note from Iwanako. And I was still too dense to even question what it was before she confessed to me in the snow.
And that turned out just wonderfully for all parties involved.
“Yeah,” Saki says in a regretful tone after swallowing her mouthful of food. “Not one of my better ideas.”
“Hey, it's not like it's your fault he turned into an asshole when you broke up,” Chisato reaffirms. She's taken whatever was in the package and done something with that thing that looks like a thermometer. I figure out what it is right as she places it against her finger with a loud click; I've seen enough television to recognize a diabetic testing kit. My suspicions are confirmed when she takes a small strip of paper and touches it to the bright red bead of blood and I realize I'm giving my attention to Chisato because I'm not really wanting to focus on the other subject.
“It's no big deal,” Saki explains for my benefit, obviously trying to just get through it so we can drop it. “I met him in the art club first year, we dated for a few months, it didn't work out, he's been pissed at me ever since and now I am hungry and I am done talking about Maeda.”
“He's really not all that bad,” Chisato says, playing with the buttons of the meter while Saki tears into her sandwich. “He's probably just a bit grumpier than usual from his surgery. You think he'd be happier since he's waited so long for it.” She plugs the strip into the top of the meter, which starts to beep.
“What type of surgery did he have?” I ask, staring at my own sandwich and deciding to try it. “Did it have anything to do with the bandage on the side of his head?
“He had a cochlear implant put in a few weeks before you transferred in. It was supposed to help with his tinnitus.”
Just like with Saki's condition, I recognize some of those words.
“I have no idea what those things are.”
Chisato makes a note of the display on the meter, then swiftly puts everything away with practiced motions. It seems she, like Saki, has no problem discussing the conditions of others at Yamaku.
“I don't know all the details, but it's a ringing in the ears. He had a cochlear implant put in because it's supposed to help, but I think it was kind of a last resort thing. One of the guys in our class has one. It's pretty neat, actually. It's like an artificial ear that that gets implanted under the skin and there's a headset that goes with it.”
“How are things going with you and Mitsuru, by the way?” Saki asks, her voice streaked with irritation that we're still discussing an unpleasant topic for her. The smile she gives her friend doesn't reach her eyes.
“Quite well actually, thank you for asking.”
So much for that diversionary tactic.
“Oh, hey, Saki,” I mention, not just to change the subject but also because I remember something. “You said last night you had a fishbowl in your room, right?”
“Mhm,” she mumbles, her mouth full.
“How exactly do you take care of a fish? I've never had one before, and I really have no idea what to do with the one you gave me last night. He's still just kind of sitting there in his cup. I changed the water out, but...”
She swallows quickly before answering. “Oh gosh, I was so tired at the end of the night I didn't really think about that...how much time do we have left for lunch?”
I look at my watch. “About thirty minutes.”
Saki does a quick calculation in her head. “Tell you what. I have some extra stuff in my dorm room you can have. I'll go back to grab it now, and then we can meet this evening so I can give it to you?”
“Can't we just do it after classes get out?”
She shakes her head. “After our last period I have to go straight to the music room. We're having some sort of meeting about the festival, and then we're going down into town.”
“Ah.”
“Need help?” Chisato asks, finally picking up her own sandwich.
Saki waves her off dismissively as she positions her cane to brace herself. “Nah, I'll be fine. I need the exercise anyway. I didn't wake up in time to get my swim in this morning.” She swings her legs out from under the table and stands up, grabbing the remains of her sandwich in her free hand. “Can you take care of the tray for me?” she asks.
“No problem,” Chisato answers, and gives a little wave. Saki gives a short bow and turns to leave. I watch her as she moves through the room, a little unsteady on her feet but more than capable of keeping a fairly good clip.
“I have no idea how she does it,” I ponder when she's out the door. “How can she have that much energy? I barely made it to class today.”
Chisato laughs. “She's always like that. She doesn't let much slow her down.” She takes a quick drink from her glass before continuing. “Me, I was up a lot later and I didn't eat much. What's your excuse?”
“Trying to keep up with Saki yesterday,” I answer with a smirk. This only causes Chisato to laugh even harder.
“Yeah, it can be exhausting. But you had a good time yesterday, right?”
“I did. Seems like it was just what I needed, honestly.”
“Good,” Chisato says. “By the way, thanks for keeping her company yesterday. I wanted to swing by earlier but there was just so much stuff that had to be done and nothing was going right.”
I think back to getting food at Lilly's stall and the problems she said they were facing. “Nothing goes as planned, does it?”
“Not with an event like that. Overall though, it went pretty well from what I heard.”
A thought strikes my mind as I'm watching Chisato eat. “So, you're diabetic, right? You just tested your blood sugar?”
“Mhmm,” she affirms, chewing.
“I thought whenever you did that, you had to inject yourself with insulin,” I start to say, but as soon as I finish that sentence I see Chisato shaking her head as she swallows.
“Not me, I don't have to do that. I have something a bit more direct.”
She leans back in the chair and turns sideways, lifting up her shirt above the top of her skirt. I see a black box about the size of a pack of cards clipped the waistband of the green fabric, with a display on the front and a tube snaking out of sight. She waits for me to get a good look at it before she drops her shirt back down. Now that I know what to look for, I can see the bulge it makes.
“Insulin pump,” she explains. “All I have to do is hit a button or two on it and it does all that for me.” She pats her side for emphasis. “It's a lot easier than sticking myself with a needle every time. Less painful too. I only need to put in a new needle every few days.”
“I thought diabetes had to do with what you ate,” I comment, wracking my brain for everything I know about diabetes, which admittedly isn't much.
“Sometimes, but that's usually something with type two diabetics. I'm type one,” she explains.
“I didn't even know there was more than one type.”
“Most people don't,” she says, taking another quick sip of her drink. “Type one diabetics don't produce insulin, so that's why I need the pump. Type two diabetics make it but build up resistance to it. Type one is pretty rare.”
The memories of the defibrillators along the walls along with remembering the term "diabetic coma" prompts my next question.
“So if something, uh, goes wrong, I guess...what are the people around you supposed to do?”
“Force feed me syrup,” she answers, in such a straight tone of voice that I must look stunned. “No, seriously!” she continues, insisting. “The only thing that can really go wrong like that is me passing out because I didn't get enough to eat. So I need sugar. Well, I guess I could always get a bad batch of insulin or something could go wrong with the pump, but I'd notice before it got that bad. That only happened once.”
“Seems like a lot to keep track of.”
“You get used to it. I mean, don't you take medications or vitamins or something?"
“So many that I'm amazed I don't sound like a baby rattle when I walk,” I concede with a sigh. Chisato laughs and continues to eat.
We make some small talk between various food items, and the rest of the lunch period passes by quickly. We deposit our trash in the can, placing our trays – and Saki's – on the small counter next to it.
“You know,” Chisato says as we make our way back out of the cafeteria and back into the hallway, “We're going into town today, but Saki and I were going to go into the city later this week. We had a few things to do, and I think she needed to pick up some things for her fish tank. You want to come with?”
“Huh, I hadn't thought of that. I just assumed I could get what I needed down in town.”
“Nope. The Aura Mart sells some cat and dog food, but nothing for fish. You have to go to the city for that.”
Well, it could be a nice chance to explore. And besides, I don't think I would object to spending some more time with these two. I enjoyed spending much of the first week and festival around them, after all.
“Alright. Just let me know what day.”
It's interesting to analyze the strange mix of emotions that flood through me when I say that. I'm surprised that I said it in the first place, as I've always tended to be a little introverted. There's a feeling of relief that I said it, and also a realization I genuinely am looking forward to it.
I've always been the type of person that has to focus on something in the future to keep me oriented. It can be something as far out as Christmas, or something as soon as the next day. And now that I have something happening in a few days, getting to that point is all the much easier.
That's one of the things that just absolutely crushed me in the hospital. There were milestones in my recovery, for sure...but it can be hard to appreciate them in the moment. I think the only thing I ever really looked forward to in the hospital was the meatloaf on Thursdays.
I push those thoughts out of my head to save both my sanity and my gag reflex.
“We'll let you know when we figure it out!” Chisato says cheerily, starting to pick up her pace to outdistance my leisurely one. From the speed at which she moves, it's clear she wants to make one or two more stops before going back to class. I watch her retreating back, my eyes drawn to the slight bump at her right hip.
“Oh!” she starts, turning around to face me after a few steps, while still continuing in the same direction. “Don't keep Saki too long today.” She gives me a wink.
“She's only giving me a bag of stuff, how long could that take?”
“Hmmm, who knows?” she answers, flashing me a sly grin and lowering her voice. “Maybe she'll want to help you set it up.”
I stop and just stare at Chisato. My reaction seems to be the one she wanted to see, because she winks again and turns away with another laugh. She practically jogs down the hallway and turns at the end of it, leaving me standing there rubbing by temples.
“Great,” I mutter to myself. “Here we go again.”
It seems obvious that both Chisato and Saki like to tease everyone, including each other. Shizune seems to do this too, but unlike with her, there doesn't seem to be any type of challenging zeal or competition to it. It's not exactly annoying, but it's quickly becoming one of those quirky things you realize you're just going to have to put up with if you want to be friends with that person.
And yet, as I reach the staircase and start to make my ascent to my classroom, that strange mix of apprehension and excitement doesn't exactly get weaker after what Chisato said.
Pop quiz tomorrow. Focus on that instead. Study for that tonight.
And if that doesn't work, there's always a cold shower.
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